Through the State Public Security Ministry, the government reported that Tamaulipas under the Comprehensive Program for safety, the authorities of the Ministry of National Defense, the state and the municipality of Ciudad Victoria will start this campaign to receive/collect, weapons and firearms which people have in their possession.

Starting from 7-11 November of next week the Ministry will install these stands at known points of the city, where people who voluntarily want to exchange their guns for staple goods or appliances can go.

According to state institutions, this program has been conducted in other municipalities of the state where an influx of citizens found acceptable to avoid the use of firearms and thereby prevent crimes.

The development of these activities, in strict compliance with the guidelines established for this fact, people surrender their firearms will not be subject to investigation and protect your identity, so that the artifacts will be received in an anonymous and confidential.

One of the points where they will be carrying out the swap, Tamaulipas Cultural Center will be located will be performing at the Cultural Center located in Tamaulipas and the capital city services will be from 9:00 to 16:00, in the period mentioned above.

MONTERREY, October 28 .- The Ministry of National Defense (Sedena)arrested seven people and seized about 103,000 liters of fuel and firearms during various operations in the municipalities of Hidalgo and Linares.

The army confiscated five vehicles, including three which were reported as stolen, two handguns, 60 magazines, 382 cartridges, 130 doses of marijuana, six cell phones and two thousand 100 pesos. Further noted, that subsequently, in coordination with the Attorney General of the State (PGJE) and the Agency State Research, continued with the investigation of these individuals, who claimed to be members of two criminal cells (stakes) of the Zetas criminal organization.

He said that the detainees engaged in illegal activities in the municipalities of Hidalgo, Salinas Victoria, Abasolo and El Carmen, working under the direct orders of ‘Burning’, the alleged driver of this criminal group in Nuevo Leon, who in turn receives direct instructions from Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias ‘The Z-40’.

Also, the Department of Defense indicated that the criminals arrested are linked to other illegal activities such as deprivation of liberty means of kidnapping, murder of people, organized crime, possession of firearms used exclusively by the Mexican army and air force and vehicle theft.

He said in a second operation, by means of military intelligence, they were able to locate on a stretch of highway known as Hualahuises-Montemorelos, an underground fuel outlet, stopping at the place of Miguel Angel Garza Lopez, 43 years old. The army seized three tractor-trailer tank types, in different capacities with approximately 103 thousand liters of fuel. They secured and pointed out that the detainees were handed over to the authorities.

In a security operation that occurred Wednesday in the southern Veracruz city of Coatzacoalcos, military personnel seized high explosives, detonators, weapons, cell phones, military type equipment and stolen vehicles from a safehouse located in the colonia Brisas del Golfo area of the city.

An arson attack on a casino in the northern Mexican industrial city of Monterrey sparked a massive fire and killed at least 53 people, the governor of the state of Nuevo Leonsaid late on Thursday.

Mexican Drug Wars

Governor Rodrigo Medina announced the grim toll in an interview with the Televisa network, adding that the vast establishment, the Casino Royale, had been set ablaze using some kind of flammable liquid “like gasoline.”

President Felipe Calderon condemned the attack, calling it an “abhorrent and barbaric act of terror” in a message on Twitter and expressing his solidarity with the people of Nuevo Leon, of which Monterrey is the capital.

Casinos in Monterrey have recently been targeted because some owners have refused to pay protection money demanded by criminal gangs linked to the country’s booming drugs trade, local media have reported.

Medina said the attack was carried out by six men who arrived at the casino in two vehicles around 4:pm on Thursday. Some men entered the casino “and screamed out ‘everyone hit the floor,’” a witness who spoke on condition of anonymity told Mexican media. “I don’t know if there was a weapon that makes such a noise, but an impressive explosion followed — I never want to go through something like that again,” said the witness, who fled to the rooftop with a friend to escape the flames.

The state head of civil protection, Jorge Camacho, said that the death toll was so high because many people hid in bathrooms and offices when they heard the explosions instead of heading to the emergency exits, and were trapped by the flames. Most of the victims had died of smoke inhalation, he said. It took firefighters four hours to control the flames, and Medina warned that more bodies could be found inside the casino.

Calderon ordered interior minister Francisco Blake to Monterrey to head the government probe into the attack. Only a few years ago, Monterrey had been seen as one of Mexico’s safest cities.

But Nuevo Leon state and its capital, which is home to four million people, have seen an increasing amount of drug-related violence, with more than 70 people killed in Monterrey last month alone.

Nearly 850 people were killed in the state in the first half of the year, compared to 278 murder victims for all of 2010, according to a tally by the national newspaper Reforma. More than 41,000 people have died in violence linked to Mexico’s organised crime gangs since Calderon launched a military crackdown in December 2006.

Authorities said a drug cartel was apparently responsible for the attack. Cartels often extort casinos and other businesses, threatening to attack them or burn them to the ground if they refuse to pay. In an act of desperation, authorities commandeered backhoes from a nearby construction site to break into the casino’s walls to try to reach the people trapped inside. “This is a night of sadness for Mexico,” Alejandro Poire, the federal security spokesman, said in a televised address. “An unspeakable, repugnant, unacceptable act of terror has been
committed.” “These unspeakable acts of terror will not go unpunished,” Poire said, adding federal authorities were aiding state forces in the investigation.

While there was no immediate information linking the attack to drug cartels, Monterrey has seen bloody turf battles between the Zetas and Gulf cartels in recent months.

Once Mexico’s symbol of development and prosperity, the city is seeing this year’s drug-related murders on a pace to double last year’s and triple those of the year before.

Larrazabal said the casino, in a well-off part of Monterrey, had been closed by authorities in May for building an expansion without a permit, but a judge later granted the owner an injunction to continue operating.